In Thailand, an articulate urban minority took to the streets to
remove an authoritarian populist, Thaksin Shinawatra. But in Malaysia the non-
Malay minority has no such remedy to address majority-backed institutional
authoritarianism based on race and religion.

At the end of March,
Abdullah unveiled the Ninth Malaysia Plan 2006- 2010, a document supposed to
spur Malaysia toward its goal of becoming a developed nation by
2020.

While it contains some laudable policies focused on education and
reducing regional income imbalances, its central message was "no change" in the
system of racial preferences in favor of the Malay majority.

This is to
be maintained not just for another five years, but for 15. It was not explained
how the Malays can expect to be regarded as developed by 2020 when the majority
ethnic group is still exempt from the rules of equality and open
competition.

What began in 1970 as a necessary attempt to raise the
economic and social conditions of Malays has become a system that enriches the
Malay elite, centred on UMNO, the ruling party, at the expense of the rest and
institutionalizes crony capitalism.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir bin
Mohamad has for some time been forthright in deploring the Malays' alleged
failure to seize the opportunities that the system of racial preferences has
offered. He recently noted that "the Malay community contributed the least" to
the nation's development, which had been "built on the hard work of the other
races."

While Abdullah himself in the past has urged Malays to escape
from dependence on racial preferences, his policies have failed to reflect such
sentiments.

While officially committed to the creation of a multi-ethnic
"bangsa Malaysia" (Malaysian nation), the government remains wedded to racial
obsessions. "Each of us is a Malay, Chinese, Indian or other race
first,"

Culture Minister Rais Yatim recently declared.

No wonder
then that according to a recent survey by the Merdeka Center for Opinion
Research, racial antagonisms have been on the rise. No less than 50 percent of
those surveyed "do not trust other races." Issues such as religion are obviously
part of the divide, but official preference policies are part of it too. Most
Chinese and Indians believe the Malays to be "lazy" while the Malays view the
Chinese as "greedy" and Indians as "untrustworthy."

The civil service has
always been a Malay stronghold, but is now so identified with this group that
last year the Chinese, who are 30 percent of the population, constituted just
1.6 percent of applicants for governments posts.

Things are going from
bad to worse. The police, backed by the prime minister, ordered all female
officers, including non-Muslims, to wear the tudong (head scarf) while on
parade. It was claimed that there was a need for uniformity, as though the scarf
was a part of the police uniform rather than a religious symbol.

The
confusion of religion and civil society is worrying for many Malays, as well as
all non-Malays.

Abdullah in principle stands for what he has termed
"Islam hadhari" - the adaptation of Islam according to modern conditions,
following principles rather than formulistic rituals, and tolerance of differing
interpretations.

However, religious authorities, often with state
backing, tend to see themselves as both as guardians of religious orthodoxy and
of Malay identity.

In the process they seek to deprive Malays of the
right to think for themselves - including which, if any, religion to follow.
That is not an attitude likely to make Malaysia an advanced country or raise
Malays to the level of social and economic development of the
non-Malays.

This drift toward religious intolerance puts official
Malaysia at odds not only with its non-Malay population and many Malays, but
with its neighbors.

The difference with Thailand and Singapore is obvious
enough. More striking, however, is the difference with 80-percent-Muslim
Indonesia, where secularism is fiercely defended, individual freedoms are better
protected and widely differing interpretations of Islam flourish.

With
its wealth of resources and the attractions of its infrastructure and labor
force for foreign investors Malaysia should continue to succeed.

But if
its other great asset, its multi- ethnic society, is to flourish in a highly
competitive, highly secular East Asia, the religious obscurantism and racial
privileges will have to go.